The present invention relates generally to games of skill and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus for mapping a player of a game to a certain skill level based on the player""s performance in predetermined measurable features of the game.
In sports such as bowling and golf, a handicapping system may be used to allow for equitable competition between players with widely varying abilities. The handicapping system typically assigns a handicap to a player based on the player""s overall score in prior games. The poorer the player""s score in the prior games, the greater the handicap. A drawback of such a handicapping system is that it facilitates cheating. For example, in a tournament that uses a player""s overall score in earlier games to place the player in a particular skill bracket for the tournament, a highly skilled player could deliberately perform poorly in the earlier games so that the player is assigned to a lower skill bracket. In the tournament, the highly skilled player can then easily defeat his or her lesser skilled opponents who truly belong in the lower skill bracket. The present invention overcomes this drawback of typical handicapping systems.
A skill mapping method comprises providing a game of skill including a plurality of predetermined measurable features, the game being played by a plurality of players; measuring a performance of each player in at least one of the predetermined measurable features; mapping each player to a respective skill level based on the player""s performance in the at least one of the predetermined measurable features.
A skill mapping apparatus comprises means for executing a game of skill including a plurality of predetermined measurable features, the game being played by a plurality of players; means for measuring a performance of each player in one of the predetermined measurable features; means for mapping each player to a respective skill level based on the player""s performance in the one of the predetermined measurable features.
In one embodiment, the respective skill level to which each player is mapped is used to place each player in one of any number of skill brackets. For example, a system might include three levels such as beginner, intermediate, and advanced. Also, each player""s skill level is optionally used to calculate a respective handicap value for modifying the player""s actual score in the same or subsequent games.